Simon, Cousins, North American Properties Team Up on Mall

ATLANTA-Three national mall developers are joining forces to build one of Georgia’s largest regional retail centers, located along Interstate 75 in fast-growing Henry County, about 35 miles south of Downtown Atlanta.

Cousins Properties Inc. of Atlanta, Simon Property Group of Indianapolis and North American Properties of Cincinnati previously had planned to build separate malls, each totaling about one million sf. The 1.9-million-sf Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County is the largest in the state.

Now, the developers confirm in a published report, they will pool their expertise and decide shortly which site is best for what area retail brokers estimate could be at least a 1.2-million-sf mall with a development cost of about $120 million or a minimum $100 per sf hard construction cost.